iPhone is a household name and so is iPad. Most of us have heard of tumblr, fiverr and flickr. But is it asking too much to combine the “i” with “Favr” to read as “I favor”?

I was very excited when I found that the domains ifavr.com, ifavr.org and ifavr.net were available. So much so that I have launched a start-up with a vision to make iFavr the one place where people come to share their favorites and discover new favorites.

The flagship of the start-up, the iFavr app was developed combining innovative features such as:

a simple and consistent way to capture favorites,

instant search and predictive text to make it easier to add new favorites,

combining all favorites in a massive database for all to share and explore,

an innovative select slider to query the data without any coding,

sharing favorites with images and charts on social media,

gamify the experience by earning favrs and exchanging favorites (and favrs) with friends, and

recently introduced favorite quizzes to find out what friends and peers like most.

But not everyone seemed to get the idea behind the iFavr app at first. Were iFavr and the meaning “I favor” as obvious to everyone else as it was to me? To find out we launched a poll on Twitter… and got an answer.

The results showed that a significant number of people do think that iFavr is too difficult to read as “I favor”, suggesting that we should explain what iFavr means.

What encouraged us, however, was that 1 of 5 people indicated that once they got the meaning, it stuck. This combined with people who got the meaning of iFavr the first time, convinced us that iFavr is a good name to use.

A few other reasons counts in favor of iFavr:

iFavr is a statement of preference not of fact – this allows people to share their opinion freely and anonymously,

iFavr allows you to simply say what you like (iFavr this … because), but it also allows you to compare (iFavr this over that … because),

Rather that posing a question, iFavr is a statement that elicits a response from other users to agree or not,

iFavr is a very short hashtag #iFavr, and therefore memorable,

Seeing that the English-speaking world cannot agree on t he spelling of favor or favour, it makes perfect sense to remove the controversy (and the vowels).

Using iFavr allowed us to make up our own words within the iFavr app like favrits, favrs and still to come favatars!

So, what’s in a name? Each decision, also choosing a name has pros and cons, and iFavr is no different. But what is most important is that the name iFavr sticks. Once you get it, you cannot pronounce it any differently than “I favor”.

Some more interesting questions remain:

What do you favor?

Are you willing to share your favorites?

Are your favorites hot or not?

What else are out there that other people favor?

These questions can all be answered in the iFavr app. Give the iFavr app a fair go and let us know what you think.

New York – iFavr, a quiz app designed to put student users in control of surveys, has recently been released to the public. The brainchild of Australian entrepreneur Anton Parsons, the app is designed to overcome the limitations of traditional poll and survey methods. iFavr empowers users to share their opinions, compare results, and discover what their peers like most. TechnoSIP, a NewYork-based firm was selected to develop the app based on their expertise in AI and big data solutions.

Understanding the iFavr App

iFavr is a free app with a simplified format for creating polls, allowing users to design and publish new survey material with ease. When users want to create a new question or answer an existing one, they simply fill out three lines. The first, labelled “iFavr,” contains the item that they think is the best. The second, labelled “over,” contains the item they consider to be the next best after the first item. Finally, the third item, labelled with a question mark, describes the context of the question.

Say that a user wants to create a “would you rather” poll to see which countries potential backpackers like to travel through. They could enter “Portugal” in the first line, “Brazil” in the second,” and “the best country to backpack through” in the final line. The app will then publish “iFavr Portugal over Brazil the best country to backpack through” as a publicly accessible quiz.

Once a quiz has been published, other users can access it and contribute their own answer choices. Say another user found the backpacking quiz but decided that neither Portugal nor Brazil was a suitable entry, instead believing that Nicaragua was the best country to backpack through. They could take the quiz and enter “Nicaragua over Portugal the best country to backpack through.” This entry would be visible to other users in the quiz results, making it clear that the initial two answers did not represent the full range of opinions on this subject.

Metrics & Measurements

In addition to allowing users to post and answer quizzes, iFavr also provides clear metrics for the results of those quizzes. As more people answer each question, the app consolidates their responses into a bar graph and a pie chart, which users can switch between at will. This makes it easy for ordinary users, most of whom do not have training for how to poll professionally, to interpret others’ responses and discover the most popular answers.

To use the backpacking quiz again, let’s say that five users thought Portugal was the best country for backpacking, while three answered Brazil, two answered Ghana, and one answered Nicaragua. The bar graph would show a “Portugal” bar with five votes, followed by a “Brazil” bar with three votes, a “Ghana” bar with two, and a “Nicaragua” bar with one. For the pie chart, Portugal would take up half of the pie, Brazil one-third, Ghana one-fifth, and Nicaragua one-tenth.

The Creation of iFavr

iFavr began with a simple rhetorical question: “are surveys hot or not?” The answer was a clear “no;” throughout his life, Anton Parsons had taken countless surveys, almost none of which were engaging or accessible. Standard quizzes often put limits on the range of customer responses, undermining the value of the data. Customer satisfaction quizzes, for example, sometimes require users to provide an explanation if they say they are “very satisfied” or “very unsatisfied,” leading many people to choose more moderate responses. A lack of explanation options can also be a problem. Say a restaurant asks customers whether they would recommend it to their family and friends, but doesn’t provide space for explanations. Users who say “no” cannot indicate whether they voted that way because they don’t like the restaurant or because their family and friends don’t live near it.

Parsons realized the problem was that users didn’t have enough control over the surveys they took, and thus couldn’t create questions with more effective answer choices. Because most consumers lack the programming skills to publish surveys on their own, he designed an app that would take care of the technical side for them. Users who downloaded the app would have instant access to a format that made it clear how to quiz others and interpret the results. There would thus be few barriers to designing polls and surveys directly suited to each user’s needs.

Applications of the iFavr App

The iFavr app can be used for a wide variety of different purposes. These include:

Trip Planning– iFavr allows users who are planning trips to vote on locations, activities, accommodations, and other aspects of their journey. This makes it useful for large family vacations, school field trips, and other plans that require large numbers of people to agree on multiple factors.

Restaurant Selection– Friends, family members, and significant others can use iFavr to compare different restaurants in a given area and decide which one to visit. Restaurants can also use it to assess how their popularity compares to that of their competitors, as well as to determine possible strategies to attract more customers.

Decisions for Entertainment– Whether they are deciding on movies, sporting events, concerts, or any number of other entertainment sources, iFavr makes it easy to assess each participant’s level of interest and choose accordingly.

Party Planning– With iFavr, hosts can assess what foods to serve, what locations to book, and other characteristics for events and parties.

Community Organization– PTA boards, town councils, and other community groups can use the app to determine discussion topics, gauge public opinion, or otherwise set the agenda in advance.

Just For Fun– iFavr recently released a Quiz Feed, where you and your friends can post quizzes and compare results to the community benchmarks. Just pick a quiz, invite your friends, and see how you stack up.

While the app was originally designed for students, individuals from any age group can benefit from it, as can businesses, non-profits, and other organizations. Download iFavr today and experience just how empowering it is to take charge of the survey experience.

Is that even a question? Google has to pay people to complete a survey.

So why is it that we all hate surveys so much?

The other day I received a survey in my inbox from one of the largest food chains in Australia. It was literally only minutes after I had walked out of the store. Having used my loyalty card there, I presumed they knew it was the first time I had shopped with them. I was up to my eyeballs in the development of the iFavr app and was looking for affirmation there had to be a better way to get to know what customers want and like so I decided to take the questionnaire.

It started with a promise that my feedback would be used to improve the service at this store. Not that I really cared – we were only visiting for the weekend and I may never shop at this store again.

Next came my pet hate… On a scale of 0 to 10 where 0 means “Not at all likely” and 10 means “Extremely likely”, how likely are you to recommend this store to your relatives, friends and colleagues? I had to pick 0 because they lived 100 miles away!

The next question they changed the scale from 1 “Totally dissatisfied” to 7 “Totally satisfied” and wanted to know whether I was satisfied or dissatisfied with my recent visit. I was going to be generous and pick 7 but then I was required to provide a reason for my choice. Considering that a reason may only be needed for either a very high or low score and as I didn’t want to give a reason I tapped back and lowered the score to 6. This didn’t help, they still would not let me pass.. then 5, then 4 (indifferent) so I gave in and typed “What do you want me to say? Is a groceries store!”

[Are you still with me or is this too painful to read? Hang in there, it is far from over]

The satisfied-dissatisfied questions continued with a 26-word sentence starting with “Thinking about your recent visit…” repeated 6 times, once for each section. To my dismay I read it every time. They wanted to know about the availability of parking- don’t they have CCTV coverage? Did they not consider that I would not have been in the store if I could not get a park anyway; the availability of trolleys and baskets – I would have asked if there were none, the cleanliness of trolleys – why can they not check it themselves?

Next they wanted to know “Ease of moving around the store and aisles.” Lucky for them I was not on crutches, store cleanliness (e.g. no spillage on the floor) – I would have sued them if there was and I had slipped, and then the “general presentation and cleanliness”. The store deserved a 7 but at this stage I was so annoyed with the survey that they got a 2! [Still with me? I also thought this was the end.]

Next came (after reading the 26-word preamble again) stock availability, “correct prices on all products” – how should I know? The range of products, then “overall value for money for my total shop” – I only bought a few items, but were the prices right? Just in case it was not I rated my satisfaction low. Then a question on the waiting time to check out. At this point, I wanted to write that the shopping experience took less time than completing the survey, but there was only the scale of 1 to 7.

Next, what kind of checkout did I used. I was extremely satisfied as I picked the self-service checkout. How was the ease of use of the self-service checkout – was I now rating myself or the checkout? Again extremely satisfied.

That was when I noticed for the first time a bar at the top of the page with “start” on the left and “finish” on the right. I was 25% of the way! I was committed to completing this questionnaire so I tapped next. [I am sure you will not get to the best part at the end of this article, if I carry on like this, so I will only give a summary of the rest.]

There was one question on the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff, a question I thought they could have skipped seeing that I checked out at self-service. Then I had to tick the different departments I visited; fruit and vegetables, meat, bakery and the serviced deli. I had to rate each of the departments – are they using these answers for performance management? Then an important question, “how did this store rate when compared to other supermarkets in the area”. Fortunately, I could pick an answer that stated “I do not know as I do not shop at other stores in the area” – but was that because I am a loyal customer or because I was just visiting?

Another four questions followed on the rewards card that had gotten me into the trouble of answering this survey in the first place. One of them wanted me to agree that the rewards program has “great benefit”. They asked for a reason for the score and I could break it to them that I no longer use their food stores as I am buying from a competitor that is much cheaper (without a rewards program). Then a question if I had any specific ideas on how to improve the service – I was depleted of any creative thought by this time, so I had none.

Did I want the store manager to give me a call? NO! Then agreeing to link this survey to my rewards card – if they could detect that I bought from the this store they already had it linked and finally a thank you page and warmest regards from the CEO. [If you have read to this point I also want to thank you for your patience].

Filling out this survey definitely reaffirmed the necessity for the iFavr app. How do you find out where to shop for groceries? You ask someone who’s opinions you trust where they shop and why. And if you ask enough people, not only do you get to hear of places to shop that you have not considered in the first place, but also a host of reasons why people prefer one over the other.

This is what iFavr does – compares anything and captures the reasons why people like one thing better than the other. In this case, the most valuable piece of information I had to volunteer was, “shopping at a competitor because they were cheaper”.

Why do we hate surveys so much? Because we do not like to be treated as monkeys, we know what we like best and also why we like it. Just ask!

To share the vision of ifavr.org requires a bit of imagination – at least at this very early stage. Imagine a single place where you can go to discover what people really like. A place where the opinions of many people are combined to turn opinions into facts and stats; where information is easily and anonymously shared and the combined results are available for all to view, analyse and share.

Socially sound

Social media proves that people like to share what they like best, but to encourage users to share their favorites using the ifavr app, we’re giving something in return: we’ve built social conscience into the fabric of ifavr.org by pledging to contribute 51%of our profit to charityand education. Not only can you share what you like best and discover what other people prefer, but you’ll also contribute to a good cause simply by voicing your opinion.

Anyone can use it

All of this is made possible by a very simple and consistent way for people to add favourites, in the format of:

ifavr [best] over [next best]

[in this context]

All these ‘favrits’ are linked in a large dataset of what people like best, as well as why, when, where or how they like it. ifavr is opinion polling on steroids!

Our vision is to create a valuable resource that is fun and useful for just about anyone – whether you’re a casual user wanting to know what your boyfriend would like for Christmas, or a business interested in which product features your customers like most.

Compare anything

The ifavr app was designed with social surveys, polls and quick quizzes in mind. It’s user friendly -instead of questions demanding answers, ifavr presents users with a statement. These statements are open ended and users can swap best and next best, edit or add their own favrits or context. It is so much easier to respond to than completing a questionnaire.

Other users’ favrits are presented to you in a fun favrits feed. By responding, you make these favrits your own, to share with your friends, peers or customers. If you have responded to a favrit and would like to know how your friends or customers would respond, simply invite them with a few taps in the ifavr app. You can also combine favrits in an invitation to create a mini survey or a quick quiz. Unlike surveys you don’t have to come up with all the questions.

You can then view the responses to the invitation and compare it to all other responses. Are you targeting the right customers or market? ifavr provides a benchmark for comparison! ifavr is by design open-ended allowing you to share or compare anything!

Share the results

At ifavr we love data, but you don’t have to be a data scientist to analyse the results. We’ve written the queries for you. All you need to do is to slide the Select Slider from ‘discover’ to ‘exact’ to display the results in beautiful charts. We encourage you to share these results with friends, customers or on social media, so that more people can add their opinions.

I started this blog post by appealing to your imagination, but the ifavr app is real and available to download now. Discover the latest favrits first or share a few of your own!

Today I am taking that first step to launch ifavr.org and the ifavr app. I have decided to take a slow and steady approach. Developing the ifavr app is only half of the success of ifavr.org, the other half depends on data. So over the next 100 days my aim is to find the first 100 users (ifavr investigators), to each add 100 new favrits on topics they feel passionate about.

If you have a topic that you are passionate about and want to be one of these 100 people, leave me a comment or download the app and start adding favrits right away. I would like to hear from you. There are always new topics to explore and new favrits to discover!

I will be documenting my journey and eating my own dog food (not that I like this expression) by using the ifavr app to build the community.

To start, I will test the premise on which ifavr.org is founded, namely that people like to: